special interests

In the wake of the election, it wasn't shock based on pollsters' errors that got to me. Somewhere deep inside, I simply didn't believe that, of all countries on this planet, the United States could elect a narcissistic, celeb billionaire.

Last week we met with a student who is applying to middle school. We wanted to get to know this sincere and funny 12-year-old boy. We asked him, "What do you like to do in your free time?" He looked to the ceiling and seemed at a loss on how to respond...

What makes the DNC's decision even more offensive and obtuse is the fact that a central and widely accepted platform of this entire election season is campaign finance reform, rejecting the use of corrupt money in politics, and overturning Citizens United.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will be sitting in the House gallery as an honored guest at the State of the Union (SOTU) address tonight. By all rights, he be should sitting before a Congressional committee instead, answering for his company's blatant tax avoidance.

In the House and Senate budget proposals for fiscal year 2016, passed with only Republican votes at the end of March, there are big winners and big losers. The big winners are defense spending and contractors and very wealthy people and powerful special interests. The big losers are children, our poorest group in America, and struggling low- and middle-income families.

Turn on the TV, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a news story about Americans uniting across ideologies. One idea, however, has risen above the fray to achieve practically unheard-of heights of public support. An incredible 97 percent of Americans agree: the time has come to end government corruption in America.

Netanyahu's speech may be evidence of hubris run amok on his part, but it is also a vivid illustration of the pervasive and destructive rise of partisanship in American politics over the last few decades.

Frank Underwood is known for deceiving people into acting against their own best interests. (We'll miss you, President Walker.) Now we learn that this trait may extend to the series which features him.